Theatre Jukebox

Theatre Jukebox

Theatre Jukebox is an arcade-style cabinet that tells stories in a unique way. Take a seat, slip on some headphones, and watch as each photograph comes to life.

You are invited to choose from a selection of cards. Each one plays a short, self-contained snapshot, but if you continue, connections between the cards build a bigger picture.

The audio stories are brought to life through projections mapped to the images. The resulting experience is fragmented, non-linear and pieced together by you. It is like snippets of memory or flicking through a photo album, each picture sparking images, associations, snatches of conversations and ideas.

Theatre Jukebox is a platform for telling stories. It particularly challenges the way we interact with archives and is a new way to attach digital stories and real value to ‘physical things’. It can be installed and repurposed in different contexts, but in every case provides an intimate experience through the artistic conception of linking the stories together.

We developed this project through a residency at the Pervasive Media Studio in June 2011. Since then, we have worked with a range of partners to create bespoke curations. These include The Royal Shakespeare Company, Oxford Museum, Mass Observation and Battersea Arts Centre. We have also run workshops where participants make their own cards based on personal memories. And in March 2013, Theatre Jukebox was nominated for an arts award at SxSW Interactive, Austin.

Past Projects

It is like snippets of memory or flicking through a photo album, each picture sparking images, associations, snatches of conversations and ideas.

Imagine a Jukebox that plays stories instead of records, and allows you to choose the chapters you want. 

— D-Shed, Bristol

It allows the visitor to self-curate their experience and exploration of archives and embraces the emergent modes of learning established and empowered by the speed and flexibility of digital culture.